


Tony's loss, Sif's prize, Loki's gain

by Keenir



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Photography, i think they still carry a torch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 10:11:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sif has taken a prize from the Iron Man.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <span class="small">Takes place before the surgery scene at the end of IM3.</span></p>
            </blockquote>





	Tony's loss, Sif's prize, Loki's gain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [murdur](https://archiveofourown.org/users/murdur/gifts).



> For Murdur, who left a link [to the picture which prompted this](http://psychoticgirl.tumblr.com/post/64844622215). Thank you.

**AVENGERS TOWER"**

"It slipped your mind?" after having mentally translated Thor's lengthy Shakespearean explanation for why the big guy's bestest warrior woman friend had played kick the can with Thor's cool buddy...and then taken the can lid home. "Um, yeah, Thor, it's not really any better when you say it than if Loki'd said it," Tony said, flopped out across his own couch, pointedly looking ceilingwards - though anywhere was fine, so long as it wasn't at the pile of scrap metal that until recently had been a nearly-complete Iron Man suit.

Thor frowned. "It was a simple lapse, Stark. I neglected to mention it beforehand, and I have spoken to you of late that I regret such a lapse." _In my recovery of Loki, part of my fury to you in those woods, it did stem from the colors you wear - as I have informed you today - but on the SHIELD Carrier and afterwards, I put it to one side and let myself not think on it. Even when Loki offered up the idea, the suggestion that Sif meet and befriend my human friends, I did not examine it._

"I don't -" Pepper started to say.

"Would you care for me to pay wounddebt?" Thor asked them. "Should that be the obstacle to the continuation of our friendship, I will pay."

 _I'm hurt that you'd think I want money,_ Tony thought, and was about to say as much when -

Pepper set one hand on Thor's shoulder. "It isn't that," she said. "Tony's still smarting from what happened."

 _Ahh. I see!_ With a nod of thanks to Pepper, who removed her hand, Thor said "I shall speak no more of it, friend Stark. None shall hear of these events from me, nor from Sif - I shall make certain of that."

"Speaking of her royal faceripperness," Tony said, "where'd she go? Most people who'd like to do what she did to me, they hang around, show off their accomplishment. You know, rub my nose in it."

"Sif has returned to Asgard. Before she left, she made her apologies and said to me that she has changed her mind about joining me in fighting alongside the Avengers." 

"So she did apologize?" Pepper asked.

"She did," Thor said. _She apologized for her rash action on one of my friends, and apologized for such an early departure._

"Well, if she apologized," Tony said, wondering if his present thoughts were what had gone through the minds of people who'd said that after he - Tony Stark the then-unreformed - had trotted out an apology.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~**  
 **ASGARD:**

"Back so soon?" Loki asked, looking up from his cell's bed, looking through the clear wall to where Sif had come to a stop.

Wearing a brown-grey robe , Sif said to him, "You knew."

"I knew many things. Perhaps you would care to be more specific?" with a smile they both knew and knew well.

Sif untied the knot holding the robe closed, and as it fell back, exposing her armored breast and equally armored abdomen, Loki could see something else there now: something new:

A binding cord wound loosely around her neck, the cord's ends flowing down to where they would cling eternally to Sif's prize: the faceplate of Iron Man.

"Oh. Yes. That I remembered," Loki confirmed.

She gave him a sore look. "You told me it would be well and meet and good for me to join Thor on Earth and to meet his new friends. You made the suggestion most politely and in the spirit all took to be a fine recovery. Yet - You _know_ how I feel about Dwarves!"

 _Particularly metalworkers with those clan colors,_ Loki knew. _Perhaps now Stark will consider making himself less machine, thus less Dwarf-seeming._ "So I do. And I considered breaking from here and striking Stark down myself," _though you would not have thought kindly of what would seem to be me avenging your treatment back then._ "But consider, good Sif," _ever lovely Sif,_ "that, given my deeds of late, had I spoken anything of Thor having fallen into bad company..."

"You would not have been believed," Sif said. "Why then not send Volstagg or Fandral? They were there with us in the forges on that misbegotten day."

"Thor would have perceived insult," Loki said. "You are our oldest friend, the finest warrior Asgard has," _the holder of my heart,_ "and thus to suggest you, would read as a compliment to his new comrades in arms. And thus give Thor cause to believe I can be redeemed."

 _And you shall be, be it by Thor or not,_ Sif was resolute, though didn't bother to inform him of that plan. "And you thought it would be amusing to know Thor has to make apologies for my behavior?"

"Truly, can you picture Thor apologizing, or can you picture him offering an excuse, perhaps changing the subject?"

Sif let that question slide by. Instead, she told him "The next time -"

"There shall be no next times, Sif," Loki said. "There are no other worrying elements _that I know of_ among Thor's new friends, at least where we are concerned. Besides..." and he leaned her way, wearing that smile which was still comfortingly familiar to her, "did you not enjoy it?"

"Yes, because that's the real reason why you didn't tell me about Thor's new Dwarven affiliate - so I could take my first trophy in centuries. That's not why."

"That's not what I asked," Loki said. "You wear it, after all."

"Only to visit you," Sif said.

Dipping his head, "You honor me, good Lady."

_Get out of there, Loki, and we can discuss how you can best honor me._


End file.
